By Michael A. Smith, MD

Chronic inflammation is the “common denominator” of age-related disease — including heart disease, many cancers, and Alzheimer's disease. Now you’re probably familiar with inflammation on the surface of your body as local redness, heat, swelling and pain. But what you may not know is this: Inflammation also happens on the inside of your body, and this is where it can be the most dangerous to your health.

Inflammation is characterized by an increased blood flow to an area of infection or injury. In this process, your blood carries white blood cells, nourishment and repair cells to the injury site to aid in recovery. But when inflammation persists, it can actually damage your body and cause illnesses.

So what causes chronic inflammation? Stress, lack of exercise, genetic predisposition, and exposure to toxins are all common culprits. However, there’s another major cause that’s often overlooked: the foods that you put into your body. Below, we’ll examine this in detail.

Americans Love Pro-Inflammatory Foods

The typical American diet is rich in animal protein, which is a source of Arachidonic acid — a polyunsaturated omega-6 fat that can increase inflammation. Arachidonic acid generates a number of potent inflammatory compounds, including the following:

Prostaglandins

Prostacyclins

Leukotrienes

Thromboxanes

It’s really important for people with inflammatory conditions to do everything they can to avoid increasing Arachidonic acid levels. Below is a short list of foods that anyone with an inflammatory condition should limit or even avoid entirely:

Red Meat – Especially fatty red meat

White Meat – Chicken, duck & wild fowl

Dairy – Any animal milk

Eggs – Avoid the yolk

Cheeses – Especially hard cheeses

Certain fish – Tilapia, catfish, yellowtail

Please note that a healthy diet usually contains a balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids help reduce inflammation, and some omega-6 fatty acids tend to promote inflammation.

Unfortunately, the typical American diet tends to contain far more omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3 fatty acids.1 Fixing this balance can go a long way toward easing inflammation.

What Foods are Anti-Inflammatory?

Fortunately, nature offers us plenty of foods that can help ease inflammation. Even better, these foods work without side effects while supplying us with essential vitamins and minerals that can boost our overall health.

The table below includes some natural foods and beverages that are known to ease inflammation:

Type of Food or
Beverage

Food Source

Supporting
Research

Omega-3 Fatty
Acids

Oily fish like
salmon, tuna, sardines, anchovies

Suppress multiple steps in the inflammatory process and
limit the production of inflammatory cytokines.2,3

Flax seeds contains alpha-linolenic
acid which
has been shown to lower CRP.5

Whole Grains

Quinoa, bulgur
wheat, barley, oats, rye

Lower CRP and are helpful in different types of arthritis.6

Dark Fruits

Tart cherries
& dark berries

Tart cherry anthocyanins provide protection against pain
and inflammation. The effect is actually comparable to that of the
anti-inflammatory drug indomethacin.7

Green & black
tea

Camellia sinensis

Black tea theaflavins, for instance, can help turn off
specific genes in your DNA that express inflammatory cytokines.8

Seaweed

Brown kelp,
wakame, arame

Seaweed is rich in fucoidan, a natural compound that
reduces inflammation.9 It’s also one of the key nutrients thought
to be responsible for the exceptionally long lives of people living in
Okinawa.10

Is Your Own Diet Pro-Inflammatory?

Want to measure up your own diet as it relates to inflammation? Try this: keep a food diary for 1 week. Create a table with 5 columns — meats, dairy, fruits, vegetables and grains. Place a checkmark in the appropriate column every time you eat a serving of food from that category. At the end of the week, simply tally your checkmarks to see where you land.

Here’s an example diary:

If you have more checkmarks to the left of the table, you’re eating what we’d consider to be a pro-inflammatory diet. If you have more checkmarks to the right, you’re eating an anti-inflammatory diet.

Please note: This table is not an exact science. It’s just a simple means of helping you assess your own diet!

How does your diet measure up in terms of inflammation? Have you ever considered this before? Let us know in the comments!

Hello balor123. Red meat is a dietary source of arachidonic acid. If you eat too much red meat and not enough omega-3 polyunsaturated fats, you will "over" activate pro-inflammatory pathways. When following the Paleo diet, try to eat as close as you can to a 1:1 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fat.

But you also need a balance of arachidonic acid. Liver and egg yolks are also super foods if you consider their high nutrient content.

About Paleo Diet fat content, it depends who you ask about. Loren Cordain supports a low fat paleo diet, very low in saturated fats. Then, there are primal advocates who believes in benefits of traditional saturated fats.

Hello balor123,Further to what LEF replied, the meat of the paleo diet was from totally naturally foraging animals which ate a lot of omega-3 containing feed. Rather than the feedlot animals of today who are fed mostly omega-6 containing feed. So most of those on a paleo diet are not actually duplicating what that diet contained, unless they eat only pasture fed meat and/or wild game. The same goes for animal products such as milk, cheese and eggs. It will be much more healthy (and closer to paleo) only if the animals lead a fully uncaged/penned existence in a setting with a variety of plant foods available for their choosing.